Page 114 of The Initiation

Once more, no one steps forward.

The fake friendliness evaporates, and the cold, dangerous smile curves on Syn’s face. “Then let me put it this way. The person who did this will make themselves known before the end of the day, otherwise every person in this room will find their own videos uploaded onto the internet tonight.”

“You can’t do that!” someone cries out, though I don’t catch who it was over the sudden uproar.

“I absolutely can,” Syn disagrees. “And I absolutely will. And because I’ve wasted enough of my time with this, you can figure it out amongst yourselves.”

“Are you really going to release them?” I ask as Syn walks back to me and Gem.

The look he gives me makes me realize I asked a stupid question. If Syn says he’s going to do something, he will.

“Now what?” Gemini’s watching the chaos in the room with a big grin on his face.

“We head back to the house, and you can figure out how the hell someone hacked your computer.”

The grin vanishes from Gemini’s face, but before he can respond, Syn is already walking towards the door. Despite the uproar in the room, he still manages to glide towards the exit with everyone stepping back out of his way, like nothing has changed.

Both Gemini and I follow, and although I can feel the irritation radiating from Gemini, he says nothing until we’re outside and walking back towards the house. “I wasn’t hacked, Syn.”

The snow is falling heavily now, and it’s starting to become difficult to see where the path ends, and the grass starts. Any footprints that had been made as everyone walked up to the church are already invisible.

“At Thanksgiving, my father told me he knew Victoria was here, that I shouldn’t have allowed her into the college, never mind let her take part in the initiation. Then he told me that she needed to go. Last night, Preston turned up to wish me a happy birthday, and to make sure I’d carried out my father’s orders.”

“You think Preston released the tape?” I share a look with Gemini.

Gemini shrugs, stuffing his hands into his hoodie. “We weren’t hacked, which means the only people who could access the files are those with a password. But so what if du Prick did release it? He did your job for you, you keep your hands clean, and Vicki the Vixen is gone. Or did you want to keep her fur as a trophy? Why go to all the trouble for that meeting?”

Syn shoots Gemini a withering glare but doesn’t stop walking. “This morning, I went to visit Cole Reynalds. He told me he killed JP.”

“So what?” Gemini asks.

“I don’t believe him.”

XXXXV

Syn

All morning, as I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts, I’ve always stopped short of allowing myself to come to that conclusion, never mind speak the admission out loud. I don’t like to admit I’m wrong, and thankfully, I don’t need to do so very often. But I don’t think the stunned silence I’m greeted to with my revelation is because of that.

“Wait a minute. Are you saying you believe Tori?” Royal asks.

Stopping, I glance up at the sky. Snowflakes are swirling around us, and the sky has a kind of orange hue to it, but I’m not really looking at the scenery. I suck in a deep breath and then turn back to Royal and Gemini. “I’m saying that I don’t think it’s a coincidence that not long after my father finds out that the girl who has always claimed her brother is innocent turned up here, her sex tape is released. That if I, who has the power to get her expelled just as easily as my father, would have done so without releasing the same sex tape with me in it, and that even though it’s not possible to identify me—or you—in it, doing this serves as much as a warning to me as it hurts her. And that, if I had the foresight to see that I could spin accepting her into the college as a goodwill gesture and positive publicity in the future, that surely my father should have been able to do the same.”

“Syn—” Royal starts.

I ignore him. “—And when you put all this together, suddenly, Cole Reynalds’ involvement in my brother’s murder seems a lot more like something orchestrated by the XXXVII.”

“Why, out of the three of us, am I always considered the crazy one?” Gemini asks, looking between me and Syn with wide eyes. “You’re basically accusing your father of, at a minimum, conspiracy to kill his own son.”

I don’t think Gemini is crazy, so much as he listens to his intrusive thoughts a little too often, but the rest of what he’s saying is right.

He and Royal are my best friends, but even now, there are still a few things I’ve kept secret from them. One being what my father is really like. Royal and Gemini are probably the only people in the world who might understand, but it’s too late now to tell them how I really got some of the scars on my body.

William Keyingham is as cruel as he is powerful, but conspiring to kill his eldest son?

Gemini might think I’m crazy, but as I lock eyes with Royal, I can see his hesitation. More than anything, I want him to agree with Gemini, but I can’t bring myself to ask him out loud.

“Fuck,” Royal mutters, running his hand through his hair as he glances away. “I don’t know if he’s capable of doing the deed himself, but if he got orders to let it go, he’d follow them.”

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